My Bout as Betty Crocker

So back in March I got on this kick of trying out new recipes, it all started with Elements Butternut Squash Ravioli.  We went there to dinner clear back in December and I fell in love.  For weeks it was all I could think about and I was trying to figure out how I could get my butternut ravioli fix without spending the money.  All of the sudden I thought, "I could make that"...  So I did LOTS of online research, trying to find the simplist recipe I could find.  I opted out of the homemade noodles and figured I could find those "wonton wrappers" that you can make pot stickers with.  So I was on the hunt.  Everytime I was at the store for months, I'd look for wonton wrappers and pine nuts.  I could never find them (after googling them, I found they weren't kept with the noodles or tortillas or fancy cheeses) they were in the produce fridge section with the ethnic foods section and that ricotta cheese).  One ingredient down!!  Next was Sage I found that in the organic produce fridge section.  I found the butternut squash and realized it was different than the normal summer squash, I thought I was looking for.  Good thing it was labeled or else I would've assumed it was the other stuff.  Finally, I was in search for "fresh" parmasean cheese.  I HUNTED AND HUNTED for this and NEVER found it.  If anyone knows where you find it, please let me know.  I circled the fancy cheese section & the other cheese section over and over and never found it.  I compromised with the pre graded stuff.  Never found the pine nuts.

Now I was ready for my fabulous meal.  I looked forward to it all week and kept thinking Saturday will be the day.  We did all our regualar activities but all day I was excited.  I figured it would take a little bit of time to wrap them all so I planned accordingly.  Little did I know...

5 HOURS LATER

after not pinching them tight enough and having all the filling boil out of some of them, therefore going through each one again to try and seal them better.

We enjoyed my butternut ravioli.

Consensus...

Not worth it, although it was good, it definitely wasn't as good as Elements and now I know why they specified "fresh" parmesean cheese. 

That same week Bart came home one day randomly with Sharp Cheddar Cheese and all the sudden I got excited about the homemade mac and cheese I saw on Rachel Ray.  It was made with whole wheat pasta and broccoli florets.  I was pleasantly surprised and I liked it even better on day 2.

Well, after that week I was so worn out from cooking that it's been LOTS of frozen pizza.  I'm just barely starting to get my steam back to make some actual recipes again.